Odorous air associated with toilets has long been a problem of interest in the art. The art contains many examples of air evacuation systems intended to remove such air from the vicinity of the water closet. Many of these systems include a fan that is operated either manually or automatically when the water closet is in use.
While somewhat effective, especially when the fan is in operation, many of these systems have drawbacks. The principal drawback arises because the fan must be turned on for the air removing system to be effective. Thus, someone must remember to turn a fan on, or the effectiveness of the system will be seriously vitiated. This is not a great problem in a residence; however, in a commercial building, especially one having many floors and many water closets, this problem could be serious.
Another drawback associated with such intermittently operated evacuation systems arises because the inertia of the air in the system when the fan is initially activated must be overcome before the system begins to function to remove air from the vicinity of the water closet. That is, all of the air located between the fan and the water closet as well as all of the air in the system itself, is at rest when the fan is first activated. This at-rest air has an inertia that must be overcome. The more air there is, the more inertia that must be overcome. This situation causes the fan to spend the initial period of its operation overcoming the inertia of the at-rest air in the system. This situation delays the movement of odorous air from the vicinity of the toilet. During system start up, noxious air will remain in the vicinity of the water closet, which may be undesirable, especially in a community bathroom. Furthermore, if the fan is to be operated for a limited time, the overall effectiveness of the air evacuation system may be decreased, thereby degrading the efficiency of the system.
Therefore, there is a need for a ventilating system that effectively and efficiently evacuates air from the vicinity of a toilet on a continuous basis.
Still further, since such a system is most efficient when it operates on a continuous basis, the system should have as few moving or mechanical parts as possible. Therefore, there is a need for a ventilating system that is reliable when operating on a continuous basis.
Many present air evacuation systems have the fan thereof located in a position spaced from the toilet. This severely degrades the performance of the system for several reasons. One reason arises because of the extra air the fan must move due to its location. Another reason is the delay period arising because of the spacing between the fan and the toilet.
Therefore, some systems make direct fluidic connection between the fan and the toilet bowl. However, such direct connection generally precludes continuous operation of the system. Should the toilet bowl overflow, the operating fan may pull the water into the air evacuation system thereby creating problems.
Therefore, there is a need for a ventilating system that can be connected directly to a toilet bowl, yet will not have a significant possibility of a damage due to a toilet overflow situation.
Still further, there is a need for a toilet vent system that can be adapted to accommodate a plurality of toilets whereby a single ventilation system can be used for a large building having many bathrooms.
Still further, since many water closets are already in place, it is not economically feasible to remove such toilets and replace them with entirely new toilets that are part of a ventilation system. This problem will inhibit the commercial success of any such system.
Therefore, there is a need for a toilet ventilation system that can be easily retro-fit onto existing toilet installations.
Since chemicals and filters are not always desirable or efficient, the most effective system with the widest range of applications utilizes the aforementioned ventillation system.